Insects That Can Destroy Your Houseplants

 Pests That Can Destroy Your Houseplants 

Keeping houseplants healthy can be a constant challenge. You may think that keeping them indoors is safe from pests, but in reality, many varieties prefer to turn your plant into a lunch.

Pest problem of houseplants

Although houseplants are rarer than their external counterparts, they can cause damage quickly.

Some insects at a time do not cause long-term damage, but the infection is rarely minor. The problem is that most houses provide the perfect habitat for insects to breed, which means that houseplants will multiply exponentially over time.

4 House Pests to Know

1. Spider mites

These tiny insects are hard to spot, meaning an infection may be lurking on you. As their name implies, they make silk nets for catching plants and feasting on their juices. They use these nets to move from plant to plant, which means an infection spreads quickly.

In their natural habitat, spiders lay their eggs in the fall and hatch in the spring. Unfortunately for plant-lovers, this process can take less than a week in perfect condition, quickly turning a few dozen bugs into thousands. Check the base of the leaves for network signs. Insects are like dust spots inside a web. A sticky web is a sign of spider mites, as well as leaves with brown spots. Infected plants appear to wither.

Chemical pesticides are ineffective for spider mites, so you will be best served using organic extermination methods. Remove the affected leaves and cut off the stems below where you see the nets (do not compost this plant material - throw it away instead). Rinse the remaining leaves with insecticide soap to secure their base. Regular use of neem oil also works wonders. Some put the affected plants in lukewarm rain for a few minutes each week and rinse off the remaining pests.

2. Aphids

The preferred food source for Ladybox is aphids, which are common in indoor and outdoor plants. These tiny green insects like to absorb sap from new plant growth, weakening it in the process. Let an infection go on for a long time and the plant will become more susceptible to disease.

Aphids can be seen with the naked eye and usually swarm together. Most are green, but they can also be black or gray and are usually found at the base of plant stems or leaves. If you do not see insects, look for a sticky, sugary liquid called honeydew deposits with irregular patches of yellow. Pesticide soaps work well to control aphids. Be sure to treat the base of the places where the leaves hang out. Because insects are big enough to see, crush everything you see. If you need something stronger, consider spraying neem oil or pyrethrin and using it every few days until the problem improves. Isolate affected plants to reduce spread.

3. Scale 

These tiny brown eggs rarely move, but scale bugs can cause major problems for houseplants. Better camouflage like small eggs and adults is the challenge in destroying them, which means you need to get to the problem quickly.

Most scales are brown or light brown with hard outer shells, and they are clustered under the leaves. The eggs are too small to see. These saplings leave rounded, egg-shaped bumps on the stems and leaves of the plant, leading to yellowing and poor growth.

If the problem is small, you can destroy the scales by plucking them from the plants. Otherwise, you can wipe them with alcohol or pesticide soap. Strong chemical sprays can work as a last resort, but they are often wasted because they do not always penetrate the hard shell of the insect.

4. Centipedes/ Millipedes

Although these multi-legged insects are generally beneficial, they can cause problems for houseplants — especially only in a small area. Eating organic matter such as fallen leaves helps the millipede to decompose, but indoors, they may be forced to eat live plant material. See brown or black multi-legged insects crawling on the surface of the soil and at the base of plants. Centipede and millipedes healthy plants are rarely affected, but many do not like the idea of ​​living in their own homes. You may notice them after watering, replanting, or disturbing the soil.

Since they are easily detected, centipedes and millipedes can be taken out of the pot by hand. If the number is high, consider replacing the potting soil, and tapping as much dirt from the roots as possible in the process.